An Innovative Financing Model Is Ensuring Everyone Can Afford a Heat Pump
Kicking Gas, an initiative on a tiny Washington island, is showing how community groups can help electrify everything.
An air source heat pump repairman. A collective in Washington state is increasing access to heat pumps for low-income households using a unique approach to financing.
Photographer: Andrew Aitchison/In pictures/Getty ImagesThe world just suffered through the hottest October on record amid a year of unprecedented heat. That includes searing temperatures in the Pacific Northwest this past summer. While not as extreme as 2021, when a historic heat wave blanketed the region and killed over 800, record-breaking warmth once again struck the region where air conditioning isn’t yet common.
There’s worse in store as climate change exacerbates heat waves. But Washington state resident Celia Schorr is ready whenever the mercury rises. She recently had a heat pump installed through an innovative financing program that could serve as a model to other communities where the four- or five-figure installation costs are out of reach.